Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus having the sheet feeding apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet is provided with a sheet feeding apparatus for feeding a sheet by moving a stacking plate having stacked sheets thereon up and down to bring the top sheet into contact with a feed roller. Such a sheet feeding apparatus is known to have a configuration in which the stacking plate is moved up and down with a rotating cam to move the sheets stacked on the stacking plate between a position urged to the feed roller and a position separated from the feed roller.
Further, a conventional sheet feeding apparatus has a configuration in which a separating member for separating each of fed sheets is moved from a contact position to a separated position after a fed sheet reaches a roller next to the separating member.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-123772 discusses a configuration having a clutch for turning a driving force transmission to a feed roller ON (transmitted) and OFF (untrasmitted).
However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-123772 does not discuss a relation between the timing when a separating member is moved to a separated position and the timing when driving force transmission to the feed roller is turned OFF by the clutch. Turning the clutch OFF in a state where the separating member is positioned at a contact position may cause an increase in an operation sound.